“The
World According toTomdispatch”. Edited by Tom Engelhardt Reviewed
by Dan Glazebrook

Tomdispatch
is aUS-based website set up by editor and publisher Tom Engelhardt
in the wake ofthe US bombing of Afghanistan. The essays in this collection
comprise the bestof that website, and largely fall into two broad
categories. The first lay barethe mechanics of the present day occupations,
deception, and corruptionpracticed by the US state, whilst the second
reveal the futility of the imperialproject and start to map out the
trajectory of resistance to it.

The section
“ImperialPlanet” opens with a debate between the editor
and fellow academic JonathanSchell over whether it is accurate to
talk of a US “Empire” in the traditionalsense. For Englehardt,
the answer is clear: yes it is, and it has been for sometime. For
his colleague, the US is currently trying to become a true, old-fashioned,
Empire, but is destined tofail before it achieves such a status. As
Hobsbawm has noted elsewhere, today’santi-colonialists, unlike
those of the Victorian imperialist era, have far morethan handcrafted
spears with which to drive out the occupiers. And moreimportantly,
notes Schell, “The local resistors are weak militarily but strongpolitically.
The imperial masters are powerful militarily but nearly helplesspolitically.
History teaches us that in these contests it is political powerthat
prevails.”

It is this
crucialpoint that is driven home again and again throughout the rest
of the book:Whilst the US can – and will – throw its weight
around in an increasinglybrutal way, its political influence is irreversibly
in decline.

Thus, Chalmers
Johnsondescribes recent US attempts to remilitarise Japan and raises
the spectre of aresulting Sino-Japanese war. “Has the US considered
this?” Johnson innocentlyenquires. I would have thought that
was the whole point. Nevertheless, theessay serves to illustrate the
growing marginalisation of US influence in EastAsia, especially following
the US role in creating the 1997 currency crisis, aswell as their
blatant promotion of Japanese militarism and Taiwanese separatism(thankfully,
recent events seem to confirm that the Taiwanese desire to act asUS-annointed
agent provacateur in the region is dwindling fast). Dilip Hiropicks
up the theme of US marginalisation, outlining the growing ties betweendeveloping
countries which are making the USA increasingly impotent in imposingits
economic will across the world. The military reflection of these evolvingrealities
became unmistakably clear when the new Chinese-led military alliance,the
Shanghai Co-operation Conference refused the US request to be granted
evenobserver status – despite having already granted such status
to both India andIran.

In Latin
America, GregGrandin shows hows the US military is busily fabricating
an Al-Qaeda presencein the “lawless” triborder region
between Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina usingthe time-honoured technique
of planting stories in the local press forinternational media agencies
to “discover”. The purpose? To justify astepped-up counter-insurgency
programme across the region and a refoundation ofGeneral Pinchet’s
Operation Condor, which was responsible for the murder ofthousands
of “suspected leftists” across the continent during the
1980s. Toachieve this, all the Congressional “checks and balances”
on military aid,established in the light of the Iran-Contra scandal,
are being quietlydismantled. For all that, the US strategy appears
to going nowhere fast, asgovernment after government have refused
to participate in Rumsfeld’s“cross-border security force”;
evidently, US military and economic blackmaildoes not carry the same
weight as it did in the 1980s before it had beenstymied by Chinese
trade in the latter case, and Afghan and Iraqi resistance inthe former.

Engelhardt
himselffocusses mostly on symbolism and historical analogy in US imperialism.
Thus,the US’s charmingly named “lily pad” strategy
of building military bases rightacross the so-called “arc of
instability” from North Africa to Central Asia,(conveniently
encompassing all the world’s major oil reserves) is seen as
thecontemporary equivalent of what was known in more candid times
as “gunboatdiplomacy”. But his real tour de force is an
excellent piece on “the barbarismof war from the air”,
which chronicles the history of both aerial warfareitself, and of
the chimerical faith in the ability of such warfare to “breakthe
will” of the enemy – a faith which has persisted in some
quarters despitethe countless refutations furnished by real life.
Later chapters spell out thefutility of aerial bombardment in more
detail, with “Siege notes” – the frankwar diaries
of a middle class Lebanese – graphically demonstrating how the
2006Israeli invasion stirred up hitherto neglected passions of resistance
anddefiance against the aggressor.

Elsewhere,
NoamChomsky continues with his invaluable work of furnishing the anti-war
movementwith the latest statistical data to confirm and quantify the
bleeding obvious –this time, for example, quoting Rand Corporation
statistics suggesting asevenfold increase in terrorism since the invasion
of Iraq. His research on thehuge US public opposition to their own
government’s imperial bloodbaths servesto highlight a clear
trend in today’s society – that it is increasingly onlythe
most openly racist – or willfully ignorant – who will
even attempt tojustify the wars of aggression currently being waged
or planned. It is thepro-war, not the anti-war, movement who are currently
marginalised.

In “The
Smash ofCivilisations”, Chalmers Johnson fleshes out the details
of the destruction andlooting that followed in the wake of the blitzkrieg
of Iraq, the largest-scalelooting since the Mongol invasion of 1258,
according to one Oxford professor.We all heard about the looting of
Baghdad museum, but how many realised that theancient city of Ur,
“the literal heartland of human civilisation” was chosen
bythe US military as the precise spot for two 10,000 foot runways,
theconstruction of which “completely ruined” the area?
Or that the 2,600-year oldbrick pavement at Babylon has now been thoroughly
crushed by US militaryvehicles? Or that, before the invasion, a team
of internationally renownedarcheologists held three separate meetings
with the Pentagon specifically towarn them about the dangers of looting?
Obviously all this is as nothingcompared to the human destruction
heaped on Iraq – but nevertheless, forIraqis, for whom “civilisation”
is more than just an excuse to knock peopleover the head, it is another
body blow – as indeed it is for all of us.

That human
destruction is alsochronicled here. In “The Hidden War on Women
in Iraq” – often hidden by thevictims themselves to avoid
shame - Ruth Rosen describes the epidemic of rapeand forced prostitution
now raging in that country, not only as a result of theimposed lawlessness
of the occupation, but also as a specific interrogation techniqueby
the occupiers themselves. Ann Jones goes on to paint a dire portrait
of theposition of women in NATO’s Afghanistan - with unfortunately
only the briefestof allusions to the successes made by the Communist
government in terms ofgirls education and ending feudal oppression
in the late 1970s and 1980s.

Revealing
historicalparallels are drawn, notably between Bush’s invasion
of Iraq and Napoleon’sinvasion of Egypt. Both were justified
with the exact same troika of imperialexcuses – that the offending
regime was allied with the enemy, was a threat tosecurity, and perpetrated
a tyrannical rule over its people. Just like Bush,Napolean feigned
surprise at the natives’ “lack of gratitude” before
sufferingignominious defeat as that ingratitude evolved into a ferocious
resistance –though not before he had meted out plenty of futile
brutalities against theresisting population. History repeating itself
indeed.

The section
on the“petro-industrial complex” opens with a comprehensive
study of the recenthistory of Iraqi oil. In candid detail, it shows
how Iraq is the archetypalexample of the imperial economy trick. The
trick roughly works like this: 1.Hoist an oppressive regime onto a
third world country, 2. Extend billions ofdollars ($120 billion in
the case of Iraq) of credit to this regime to spend onyour weapons
to crush all real and imagined anti-imperialists, socialists, anddemocrats
in the region, 3. When this has been accomplished, bemoan theinequality
and lack of democracy in the country and use this as an excuse toinvade,
4. Solemnly spell out to the newly installed “democratic government”the
importance of honouring the debts incurred under your previous puppet,
5.Use the promise of “debt-relief” to force the new “democracy”
to hand over allits economic sovereignty to your corporations (through
“open markets”,abolition of subsidies and tariffs, and
in the case of Iraq, “ProductionSharing Agreements”).
The same trick has been used repeatedly over the lasthalf-century
- in the Congo, in South Africa, and in countless Latin Americancountries
– but it is Iraq that has the most room for “leverage”.
With thehighest per capita “debt” in the world alongside,
in the words of Dick Cheney,the “ultimate prize” of its
massive oil resources, the neocons are determinednot to allow the
reality of resistance prevent the orgy of looting they havealways
dreamt of.

The corporate
takeoverof Iraq is detailed here, as are similar activities closer
to home. Just ascontracts were drying up in Iraq, the very same vulture
capitalist corporationsstarted drooling over New Orleans. Nick Turse
and Tom Elgelhardt spell out theendemic corruption of the Bush administration,
whose millionaire corporatebackers have swarmed to that city “like
flies to a rotting corpse” – with themost lucrative contracts
going to companies connected to the former director ofFEMA - the government
department awarding the contracts. Unsurprisingly, acompany linked
to Jeb Bush was also awarded some juicy drainage contracts –
andjust as unsurprisingly, thirty of the pumps they provided were
found to bedefective. Staying on New Orleans, Rebecca Solnit urges
us not to forget thatthe enduring “spectacle of crowds without
food, water or sanitation…was theresult not just of incompetence,
but of malice”. She goes on to describe howthe Crescent City
Connection bridge was closed to those fleeing the drowningcity by
the police of neighbouring Gretna, a rich white neighbourhood whofeared
the fleeing hordes. She also details how all housing projects were
shutdown in New Orleans, even those sustaining little or no flood
damage, showinghow Hurricane Katrina has been used as an excuse to
evict working classcommunities – many of whom are still being
refused the “right to return” tothis day.

In one
of the mostthoughtful and challenging pieces of the book, “The
Chauffeur’s Dilemma”, AdamHothschild asks some hard questions
about US society. The focus is on why it isthat the 56% of working
class men who believe that Bush’s tax cuts favour therich, also
favour those very same tax cuts. It is a thought-provoking piece and
good to see elements of the US leftstarting to tackle this issue head
on.

Overall,
thecompendium is a thoroughly researched and articulate guide to the
current stateof the US polity, and as such serves as a valuable contribution
to theeducation of the anti-war movement.

Dan
Glazebrook is a poltical journalist and aco-ordinator of
the International Union of Parliamentarians for Palestine inBritain.
He has contributed to Counterpunch and Morning Star amongst other
publications. He can becontacted at danglazebrook2000@yahoo.co.uk

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